Palo Alto: New plans hatched for historic theater

If the owner of the Varsity Theatre in downtown Palo Alto gets his way, the historic property will be reborn as the first of several "communities of purpose" at centers of innovation across the world.

New plans submitted this week by Charles "Chop" Keenan call for combining aspects of a public café, co-working space and a public forum at 456 University Ave. Dubbed the HANAHaus, it would be open to all but cater to the needs of the entrepreneurial community.

"This center will build on the tradition of café culture worldwide, where a spirited and free exchange of ideas amongst members of a community has played a vital role in defining the artistic, scientific, political and cultural life of our civilization," a project narrative states.

The facility would include an assembly space of 100-plus seats for meetings, lectures and events. Additional "communities of purpose" are envisioned for Shanghai, Berlin and Bangalore.

The one-page project narrative also touts HANAHouse as a "living laboratory that will explore innovations in the future of work, where dramatic changes in workplace technology, social demographics, cultural trends and globalization are fundamentally changing the meaning, manner and the places in which people work, play, create, connect and relax."

SAP, a Germany-based enterprise application software company with offices in Palo Alto, is listed as the client on plans submitted to the city's Architectural Review Historic Resources boards. One of SAP's offerings is called HANA.

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The Varsity Theatre opened for business in 1927. Despite a petition that collected more than 7,000 signatures, it was turned into a Borders in 1994, but has sat vacant since 2011, when the book retailer went out of business. Keenan rejected a subsequent effort to turn the building back into a theater as financially infeasible.

Keenan previously proposed turning the building into an "idea lab" for Korea-based Samsung. The new plans call for historic renovation and would not add any additional office space.